Archive for the ‘World news’ Category

Domaine Boyar Deer Point Chardonnay, Bulgaria 2016 (?7.55, Oxford Wine) The word from wine retailers is that Brexit is good news for eastern and central European wine producers. Majestic, for example, recently put out a press release trumpeting a 400% increase in sales of wines from Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovenia in the past year, which they say is down to people trying to find value for money now that the pound’s inexorable plunge is having its unpleasant way with the price of French, Italian and Spanish staples. Lower production costs mean lower prices, but does that cheapness lead to cheeriness? Emphatically so, for both palate and wallet, in this soft, stone-fruited, creamily textured chardonnay from one of Bulgaria’s largest producers, Domaine Boyar.

Edoardo Miroglio Bio Viognier Traminer, Thracian Valley, Bulgaria 2016 (from ?10.50, Vinovero) It would be a shame if interest in eastern and central European wines was confined to ‘entry point’ bottles. The wine industries of all these countries have improved significantly, with some enterprising small producers on the scene. I’m thinking of Meinklang, which operates on both sides the Austria-Hungary border and produces the rich but dry Meinklang J12 Juhfark 2012 (?25, Vintage Roots) in Hungary’s tiny Soml? region. And the adventurous Italian Edoardo Miroglio, who has added a charmingly fragrant white blend of viognier and traminer to his superb range of burgundian Bulgarian pinot noir.

Today will be mostly cloudy across the country, with rain in many places, more significant and accompanied by thunderstorms in Southeastern Bulgaria and the Rhodopes. This is the weather forecast as reported to FOCUS News Agency by the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (NIMH) with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

There will be light wind becoming moderate from the north-northeast in the eastern part of the country. Maximum temperatures mostly between 18°C and 23°C.

The Black Sea Coast will remain cloudy, with rains, in the southern regions heavy and accompanied by thunderstorms. Moderate northeast wind. Maximum air and sea water temperatures will reach 21°C-23°C.

The mountains will be cloudy and foggy. It will rain, and over 2,600 m there will be light snow. More significant rains in the Rhodopes and Strandzha mountains. Moderate wind from east-southeast. Maximum temperature at 1,200 m of about 14°C, at 2,000 m – about 7°C.

Atmospheric pressure is higher than the average for September and will not change significantly.

The Health Fund will ask for additional BGN 400 mln more for its budget for 2018. This was told by the National Health Insurance Fund Manager prof. Kamen Plochev after the end of the Supervisory Board meeting today, reported bTV.

Plochev added that the target of the requested BGN 400 million is to increase the funds mainly in pre-hospital assistance, but did not specify the percentage.

The NHIF manager also commented that it is too early to state whether the health fund will end the year with a deficit in its budget. According to him, about BGN 1 billion has been spent on hospital aid, BGN 80 mln. for medical devices and about BGN 560 million l for medicines.

Prof. Plochev added that the negotiations with the Bulgarian Doctors’ Union for the National Framework Contract for the next year have begun.

An earthquake of magnitude 6.4 on the Richter scale hit the Fiji Islands. According to information from the World Seismological Center, the earthquake has shaked the island about 16.20 local time or around 6 am Bulgarian time.

The earthquake was 100 kilometers deep and was registered about 329 kilometers southwest of Tonga and 775 south-east of Fiji’s Suwa capital. The Pacific Ocean tsunami alarm center has informed that there is no danger of large tidal waves due to the earthquake. Just three hours before the earthquake in the area was recorded another quake with a magnitude of 5.1 on the Richter scale. The quake was 554 meters deep and was registered 348 kilometers east of Suwa, Fiji.

The health of the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest – 2017 – the Portuguese singer Salvador Sobral, has deteriorated sharply.He is transferred to intensive care and is the first in the list of heart transplants, according to local media.

Earlier in September, the young musician was forced to announce that he was leaving the stage and canceling his concerts due to a heart problem.

Doctors advised him to interrupt his musical career in order to rest.

According to data from Correio da manha, Sobral is on a special device that supports the work of his heart.Earlier, it was reported that during his participation in Eurovision, the Portuguese had arrived in Kiev last and had not been involved in the rehearsals because of the congenital heart defect he suffered from.

The media said that by the end of the year, a 27-year-old Salvador Sobral must undergo a heart transplant.He won the Eurovision Song Contest with Amar Pelos Dois, and received the most support from both the jury and the audience.

Dozens of fans share on social networks that they support him and pray for his recovery.

More than 30 flights of the Russian airline VIM-Avia have been canceled, leaving more than 2,000 people at airports abroad, TASS reported.

Aviation regulator Rosaviation announced late last night that they had begun an emergency inspection of the company. It is triggered by reports that major flight delays are linked to the airline’s obligations to fuel-supplying organizations. According to data, up to 20 regular and 10 charter flights of VIM-Avia from three cities in Russia and six other countries – Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, have been canceled in the morning, a TASS source said.

They say there are over 2000 people at airports outside Russia. About 360 Chinese tourists have been blocked in the Belgian city of Liege because of a canceled VIM-Avia flight to the Chinese city of Wuhan, which is the administrative center of Hubei province. The airline has committed to transport over 200,000 people by the end of the year. The situation with the delayed flights is under the control of the Ministry of Transport, Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov announced.

Earlier on Monday night, North Korea Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho said the country was treating President Donald Trump’s latest speeches as war crimes, reports BBC.

“We have not declared war on North Korea. Honestly, this view is absurd”, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told journalists in response to another verbal shootout between the DPRK and the United States.

“The whole world must clearly remember that the United States first declared a war on our country,” earlier Pyongyang’s number one diplomat told reporters in New York.

“Since the US has declared war on our country, we will have the full right to take countermeasures, including the removal of strategic US bombers even when they are not within the airspace of our country,” the minister warned.

“In the light of the Trump’s declaration of war, all options will be on the preparatory table for the top leadership of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” the minister said before leaving New York, where he was for the UN General Assembly’s annual session. The words of Pyongyang’s number one diplomat were in response to the warnings from the Trump administration that there were all options at the table to address the development of the North Korean missile and nuclear program and threats by Pyongyang to obtain weapons capable of reaching US territory .

DPRK intelligence has stolen technology to launch ballistic missiles from submarines, penetrating one of the servers of a weapons manufacturer in the Republic of South Korea. This was reported by the Seoul newspaper “Koynjan Singun”, citing sources from the South Korean army.

According to the release, the technology was stolen for the so-called “cold start”. In this case, the rocket is launched from the launch unit of the submarine by air or gas under pressure, and the engine is activated in the air. A spokesman for the South Korean Ministry of Defense neither confirmed nor rejected the message.

“We do not comment on what might be of great importance from a security point of view,” he said. Recently, Pyongyang has demonstrated significant successes both in the development of various types of ballistic missiles and submarines. As Koynjan Singun notes, there is a suspicion that North Korea’s intelligence may also have acquired detailed plans for a 3-tonne heavy-duty submarine which the Republic of South Korea plans to have by 2020.

Patients aggresive to medics should be put on a special “blacklist” and not be visited by doctors in their home, and if specialists really have to go to be escorted by the police. This idea was launched by the President of the Bulgarian Medical Association Ventzislav Grozev. He explained to Nova TV that the list would also inform emergency doctors about having a problem patient. The organization is launching a study on how the idea is adopted.

Grozev said he was supported by the Ministry of Health, the Bulgarian Red Cross and Ombudsman Maya Manolova. According to him, similar practice has been introduced in other countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States. He, however, expressed doubts about how such a blacklist would scare the patients accustomed to attacking doctors. Similar doubts were expressed by the chairman of the National Patient Organization Stanimir Hasardzhiev. According to him, a more effective campaign would be “positive” one, as well as working with doctors to be trained on how to act in a collision with aggressive patients. Before FOCUS he also said that serious penalties are needed to reduce the incidence of attacks on medics.

According to Dr Ventsislav Grozev, the medical union chairman for the last year and a half, more than 100 doctors have been attacked in their workplace. For the first half of this year, the cases were 25. The most affected were general practitioners and emergency aid workers. According to the Bulgarian Medical Association, every second doctor was victim of aggression by patients. Most often, this is a verbal one. On Tuesday, the problem of doctor attacks will be discussed at a coordination meeting at the Metropolitan Directorate of the Interior Ministry. The idea is to set up a special organization to respond as quickly as possible to reports of such crimes.